Overview

• On June 12, 2025, Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs presented Edward Gorski Jr.’s Purple Heart to his grandson Shawn Gorski at an American Legion ceremony in Geneva.
• Edward Gorski Jr. served as a Private First-Class in the Army’s 65th Infantry Division and suffered a severe facial wound during a mortar attack in the Battle of the Bulge.
• The medal was transferred to the state treasurer’s office as unclaimed property in 2003 after a bank deemed the owner’s safe deposit box abandoned.
• Operation Purple Heart, launched in 2021, has now reunited 14 lost combat medals with veterans and their families.
• Residents can visit operationpurpleheart.org to search for unclaimed medals and submit information that could help reunite them with their rightful owners.